Start making your tuppence jokes now. Mary Poppins entered the minimum wage debate this week, with a new video on FunnyorDie.com. In it, Kristen Bell as the British nanny tells her young charges she's quitting because she's underpaid.
"But you have magical powers!" says Michael Banks.
"You'd think that would entitle me to more than $7.25 an hour," Bell-as-Poppins snaps, then bursting into song about how earning the minimum wage puts her below the poverty line...which it can, depending on her family size. She pushes for a $3 bump, which would put the wage in the $10.10 territory advocated by President Obama and congressional Democrats.
It's no stretch to think a childcare worker would make a low wage. In the US, childcare workers make $19,510 per year. Given a 40-hour work week, that's more than the minimum wage, which totals out to around $15,100, but it's certainly not much.
Then again, nannies make more than that. In the US, live-in nannies reported in 2012 earning an average of $652 per week, which would be nearly $34,000 per year. Nannies who live outside the home make even more: around $36,700.
Nowhere, however, does the British nanny explain why exactly a US minimum wage hike will affect her.